Pokemon Go: finally, a video game that gets kids outside

Pokemon Go? No clue. The whole Pokemon thing confused me when my boys got into it nigh on a couple of decades ago, and it still confuses me now, but, as explained to me by my eldest, it's something like this.

This is not like last time, with a kid sitting in the corner at Christmas lunch staring blankly into a screen. This is like all those kids from back then being young adults now, and once they install Pokemon Go on their phone, they're given a little animal (a Pokemon) to call their own. Their goal is to "catch 'em all" and build the biggest collection of Pokemon they can, rather in the manner the generation ahead of us collected bugs and wildflowers.

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Pokemon Go players swarm Rhodes

Peg Paterson Park in Sydney's west has been taken over by crowds of obsessed Pokemon Go players drawn to the hotspot to hunt for the digital critters.

But – and here is the breakthrough – instead of this all taking place on a little screen, it's taking place in the real world. The game works on GPS, showing the kids where they are in their surroundings, just like Google Maps. It shows the convenience store, the bus stop and the park two blocks over. Except when they look on the screen there's a Pikachu at the milk shop, and there's a Squirtle at the bus stop. This time, if the kids want to make that Pokemon theirs, they're gonna have to get up off the couch and actually WALK (exercise, shock horror!) to where the little animal is. Then, and only then, can they make it their own.

Not only that, to load up on the resources they need, they'll have to go to "Pokestops"; local landmarks marked on their maps. At last, the thing we've always been looking for. We have arrived at the perfect point, where "Sorry mum, I've gotta go outside and play video games" makes perfect sense!

Gotta catch 'em all: And at least the kids will get out of the house while they're doing it. Photo: Penny Stephens

No Trump card

The great man! P. J. O'Rourke, the iconic American writer – author of such seminal pieces as "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink" – has long been one of TFF's writing heroes, and he will be appearing at the Sydney Opera House on the evening of August 9 for the Centre of Independent Studies.

In a quick chat with him over the blower this week, I asked O'Rourke – who is that rarest of things, a devastatingly clever, insightful and funny writer on the conservative side of politics – the obvious. Donald Trump! Could even you vote for him?

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"Only if there is no chance of him carrying New Hampshire," he said firmly.

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"His whole politics is a big 'f--- you!' to Washington and the establishment, and across America there are a lot of people who feel exactly like that, and Trump is their guy. But he is not an acceptable candidate."

O'Rourke will be in conversation with Tom Switzer and if you see a fellow somewhere in the front rows making puppy-dog eyes at him, it will likely be me.

Hayes' milestone

About 25 years ago Channel Nine's Liz Hayes did a little match-making between me and the woman who became my wife, Lisa Wilkinson. And so we were both delighted to be at Glass restaurant on Thursday night, as Nine honoured Liz's extraordinary record of 35 years at the network, including 20 years at 60 Minutes.

The love in the room, as they say in the classics, was overwhelming as the toasts were made, a video of Liz's greatest hits over those four decades were shown, and the executive producer of 60 Minutes, Kirsty Thomson, made an entertaining speech where she noted that in the history of the program – which has, of course, had a difficult year – Liz holds the record for most stories, with 400 in total.

"In that time, Liz has been shot at in Afghanistan, almost washed away by floods in Pakistan, visited the nuclear disaster zones of Fukushima and Chernobyl. She's come face to face with a child killer in North Carolina, confronted rabid hate preachers in Kansas and London, stared into the abyss that was the horror of Sandy Hook. All of which is a testimony to the unflinching bravery of this remarkable woman."

And so say all of us. Most of 60 Minutes' on-air team was there, with the notable exception of Tara Brown. TFF ran into her in the Qantas International lounge on Tuesday morning. After the most difficult year of her professional life – think Beirut – Tara is back in the saddle, looking relaxed and happy, and was on her way to the US for a story.

Joke of the week

A courier up Gulargambone way has just been sent to deliver a package to a place he's never been to before, on the western side of the town.

He arrives at the address and sees a big sign marked "Beware of the parrot!" nailed to a tree. Looking down the garden path, he spies, sure enough, a parrot sitting on its perch.

With a little chuckle to himself, and without a worry in the world, he opens the gate and walks into the garden. He gets as far as the parrot's perch, when suddenly it calls out, "Brutus, attack!"

They said it

"What is the case for $160 million to be spent on a taxpayer-funded opinion poll, which the hard right of the Liberal Party said they're not going to be bound by anyway?"

Bill Shorten.

"You know if you want to play with the big boys, you have to lay with the big boys."

Roger Ailes, perhaps the most powerful Republican in the US and chief executive of Fox News, allegedly, to a beautiful young journalist who was looking for a job. Ailes is under siege from women now coming forward from all over with similar allegations going back nearly 50 years. He strongly denies them all.

"It is increasingly challenging when people have AR-15s slung over, and shootings occur in a crowd. And they begin running, and we don't know if they are a shooter or not. We don't know who the 'good guy' versus who the 'bad guy' is, if everybody starts shooting."

Dallas Police Chief David Brown, questioning the wisdom of the open-carry laws.

"We're going to take it out of the water and make sure it doesn't go fishing."

Gilly Llewellyn of WWF-Australia, which has paid $100,000 for a net fishing licence on the Great Barrier Reef and won't use it in a plan to help to increase shark numbers.

"I didn't want to be sitting around, I wanted to get on with things."

Cathy O'Toole, Labor's candidate for Herbert, who has gone back to work, tired of waiting for the result of the election in her seat.

"I'm here to say we are not as divided as we think."

President Barack Obama at a memorial service for Dallas shooting victims.

"Brexit means Brexit and we're going to make a success of it."

Theresa May as she was announced as the new British Prime Minister.

"A single fastened button at the waist helped show off his fantastic figure and a pale blue tie brought out the colour of his eyes. Round glasses perched on his nose accentuated his amazing bone structure – no doubt one of the assets he used to help him to bag his wife."

British online magazine Metro mocks the usual treatment given to the First Spouse, in this case Philip May, husband of new British Prime Minister Theresa May.

"It's probably my ovaries making me do it, Steve."

Van Badham delivers the riposte of the year on Q&A to shock-jock Steve Price, when he told her "I think you're just being hysterical".

"Over the past two days I've been told hundreds of times that I'm fat, stupid, a retard, that I'm unf---able, I'm a liar, a fraud, I'm mentally ill, I should be sent to a psychiatrist, I must be childless, I should be sterilised, I'm a bitch who should have her face smashed in."

Badham, after her clash with Price on Q&A.

"Hillary [Clinton] is the second-worst thing that could happen to America."